Jag E-Type rear suspension rebuild: anyone here done one?

I have been offered the opportunity to dismantle and rebuild the rear suspension of  an E-type project.

Preliminary research tells me this is a fairly long and involved process.  I still have some questions after watching soe good videos on the subject.

Other than a dial indicator and a press, are there any special tools that I need to source? 

I am confused about the outer hub coming off the axle. Some videos indicate that it should slide off easy and others are using a press to no avail? What is the norm?

Is there a master kit with all of the parts to be had? If so, what supplier is best?

The one video suggested that it was a 100 hour task; that is the same as it takes me to do floors and complete sills on an MGB! 

Pete

Why cant I type?  Jaf?

In reply to NOHOME :

yeah, maybe I have JDM on the brain, but I thought this was going to be about a special E-Type

We do it all the time. Just straight rebuild labor I'd say a good 20-25 hours and that accounts for some of the bearings and shafts giving you grief.

By the time you factor in the prep, paint, powdercoat, hardware plating. Yeah. 100+ hours easy

This is for a 60's-80's Jag IRS rear. If you do in fact mean F-type disregard everything I said

This title to this thread made me think of Frenchie. I bet he still lurks from the banned camp. Probably drives him half crazy to see the Jaguar and EV threads around here, and him having to sit there quietly. 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

I was wondering what happened to Le Frenchy. 

I was going to say where is Frenchy when we need him. 
 

A question to the mods. If you go to a banned persons profile can you communicate with them that way?  Will the still get PMs via email?  

Title fixed and good question on the PM function. Have to ask. 

Where's the petition to bring back Frenchy?  This place has been a real snooze-fest lately.

Thanks for fixing the tittle! Yeah it is the 60  phalus on wheels model that I speak of. Friend wants me to "Put it together for him" and I want to know if there are any solid reasons that it might require a specialist vs a patient puzzle addict like me.  After I get done with the worlds rustiest MGB shell rehab, a purely mechanical challenge might be relaxing.

A question that someone here might know: How do you set the  rear camber on these cars? The only way I can see is if you shim the axle at the pumpkin but that seems like an insane amount of work for a relatively banal adjustment.

Pete

dean1484 said:

I was going to say where is Frenchy when we need him. 
 

A question to the mods. If you go to a banned persons profile can you communicate with them that way?  Will the still get PMs via email?  

I thought his ban was set for a certain amount of time too.  Is it over or is it permanent?  

NOHOME said:

Thanks for fixing the tittle! Yeah it is the 60  phalus on wheels model that I speak of. Friend wants me to "Put it together for him" and I want to know if there are any solid reasons that it might require a specialist vs a patient puzzle addict like me.  After I get done with the worlds rustiest MGB shell rehab, a purely mechanical challenge might be relaxing.

 

A question that someone here might know: How do you set the  rear camber on these cars? The only way I can see is if you shim the axle at the pumpkin but that seems like an insane amount of work for a relatively banal adjustment.

 

Pete

No special tools needed. Basic hand tools and a press kind of stuff.

Yes, there is no camber adjustment. Just like up front. Just like well..... pretty much all British cars.

It only really becomes an issue if you start swapping arms and axles around to change the track width. I have never had an alignment shop tell me anything was awry back there.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

dean1484 said:

I was going to say where is Frenchy when we need him. 
 

A question to the mods. If you go to a banned persons profile can you communicate with them that way?  Will the still get PMs via email?  

I thought his ban was set for a certain amount of time too.  Is it over or is it permanent?  

Dunno. I think a time out probably did him good though.

CrustyRedXpress said:

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

dean1484 said:

I was going to say where is Frenchy when we need him. 
 

A question to the mods. If you go to a banned persons profile can you communicate with them that way?  Will the still get PMs via email?  

I thought his ban was set for a certain amount of time too.  Is it over or is it permanent?  

Dunno. I think a time out probably did him good though.

This is not his first time being banned. Learning a lesson or changing his ways is not Mguar/Frenchy's style. 

Trent said:

We do it all the time. Just straight rebuild labor I'd say a good 20-25 hours and that accounts for some of the bearings and shafts giving you grief.

By the time you factor in the prep, paint, powdercoat, hardware plating. Yeah. 100+ hours easy

 

This is for a 60's-80's Jag IRS rear. If you do in fact mean F-type disregard everything I said

We do about one per year at Eclectic and I agree with Trent. By the way we almost always put a remote bleeder kit on the rear calipers so they actually get bled every few years. We see a lot of E Types with frozen caliper pistons and dark brown fluid from lack of bleeding. 

Carl Heideman said:

Trent said:

We do it all the time. Just straight rebuild labor I'd say a good 20-25 hours and that accounts for some of the bearings and shafts giving you grief.

By the time you factor in the prep, paint, powdercoat, hardware plating. Yeah. 100+ hours easy

 

This is for a 60's-80's Jag IRS rear. If you do in fact mean F-type disregard everything I said

We do about one per year at Eclectic and I agree with Trent. By the way we almost always put a remote bleeder kit on the rear calipers so they actually get bled every few years. We see a lot of E Types with frozen caliper pistons and dark brown fluid from lack of bleeding. 

Oh very much yes. Remote bleeders are the E-types best friend. 

I cant tell you how many e-types I have seen with  holes crudely punched in the body to access the bleeders.

In reply to Trent :

Awesome, same camber adjustment as an MGB, so just don't worry about it. I can live with that.

Is there a best supplier or better yet a master kit for doing this job? Seals in particular seem to vary in design and quality when I order from different British Car vendors and I have zero experience with the E-type industry. 

SNG Barratt has the best quality stuff as a general rule.

You do set the camber by adding/subtracting shims under the CV joints at the brake disc.

You also may need to shim where the lower control arms attach at the pumpkin case so the pivot rod will slide in easily and not bind, and the arms will move freely. If it's still together make careful note of all the parts and where they go when you pull it apart.

There is a special tool to get the axle stub out of the hub bearings....it took the tool and a 10-ft bar to get mine out.

A good manual helps, I used the Bentley manual.

CrustyRedXpress said: 

Dunno. I think a time out probably did him good though.

I'm highly skeptical of that! Sadly, when you could get past the idiotic things he would make up, and then swear to, the old coot had done some super cool stuff!

In reply to MiniDave :

I have access to several manuals  and they are good for specs and broad instructions, but  I find that asking for input from those that have been down the path plus  YouTube videos to be a better way to get a feel for the job.  Unfortunately the manuals go directly to " Use special tool XYX123 to do this task" when all I have is a pry-bar, BFH and a press. Certainly where I will go for specifications when it comes to assembly.

I have done this on an E-Type and recently on a 62 MK10 Jag, which shares the rear suspension. It's not difficult. For the big bushings on the front of the lower control arms, use a sawzall to cut the metal ring of the old bushings to make pressing them out easier. Make sure the new bushings are oriented correctly before pressing them in (ask me how I learned this the hard way). The smaller bushings just press out but I have also used a big socket with a threaded rod and two nuts to force them out and that worked pretty good, too. Use a ratchet strap to hold the axle/hub up while the control arms are off. I have also replaced the bearings on an E-Type but I remember nothing of the process, which tells me that it wasn't very traumatizing. Good luck

I believe I have frenchy's contact info if you want to ask him. PM me. 

I also think he said this is a 3-4 hour job. Just drop out the 4 bolts holding the subframe in and you're basically done! 

NOHOME said:

In reply to MiniDave :

Unfortunately the manuals go directly to " Use special tool XYX123 to do this task" when all I have is a pry-bar, BFH and a press.

Or like the Bentley E-type manual (which is essentially the Official BMC Service Manual) for replacement of the clutch: "Step 1 - Remove engine and transmission assembly." AFAIR, there was nothing else in the manual for engine/trans removal and to get the engine out, you had to pull the bonnet and the seats. Of course this was nearly 50 years ago so I probably don't recall this accurately other than Step 1.

I did "get" to drop the rear suspension on my E-type and since it was a Suthern car with only about 80k on it, none of the fasteners were molecularly bonded together making the job relatively easy. Being 18yo at the time probably contributed to the ease of work, since I knew everything back then and could work pretty hard.

I'm surprised no one else brought this up, but many years ago the great Peter Egan wrote on article where, if he thought about buying an E-type, he would run it by another editor at R&T (maybe the late Allan Girdler?)   

Anyhow, he had looked at an E-type back when they were cheap with a clunk in the rear end.   The next day he came into his office and there laid out on his desk was an exploded view of the rear axle/diff/brake/suspension assembly from an E-type.   His explanation was hilarious, and I can only go by memory, but I seem to recall he said imagine if every single person in China was a bushing or a shim or bolt that's about what it looked like.   And he also mentioned the litany of special tools that were called for in the manual.   Anyhow in the end he did end up getting another E-type that was more expensive and better looked after, and wrote several articles about it.  In any case I can't ever think about a Jaguar rear end without thinking of him.   

But seriously, we now have the benefit of the internet, youtube, etc. so I would imagine there is a lot better advice out there than he had available to him.